San women call on political parties to play a role in their emancipation
Young San women in Namibia recently made a call to all political parties to reach out and collaborate with them and their communities towards their vision of achieving full equality and right as equal and active citizens of the country.
They urged all political parties to play a role in the active promotion of respect, equality and non-discrimination between people of different races and ethnic groups in their communities
The San women encouraged political parties to join them in finding ways to strenthening positive San identities to overcome feelings of shame and inferiority and that they need access to culturally sensitive education at all levels.
Furthermore they also called on all political parties to work together with them in the achievement of their economic rights. “There must be a redistribution of wealth to close the huge gap between those who are wealthy and those who are extremely poor in the country,” the group said.
“We want more access to fully equipped and properly staffed health services that can provide holistic health care including health education and screening programmes for women as well as counselling in our own languages,” the San group echoed.
According to the San group, the justice system has to be strengthened through effective and culturally sensitive human rights/women’s rights education for the police and traditional leaders. “We want the support for disaggregated data and to use such data to monitor the implementation of all the international agreements and national laws and policies that protect their political, economic, social and cultural rights,” they added.
Meanwhile, the state has committed the following international instruments to protect the rights of San young women, the UN Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.
